


Five of Diamonds

by kaitscribbles



Category: Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Genre: 5 Things, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-11
Updated: 2011-08-11
Packaged: 2017-10-22 12:35:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/238059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaitscribbles/pseuds/kaitscribbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five pieces of their relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five of Diamonds

Danny and Rusty met in a fraternity house at a college where neither of them was a student. They saw each other before the poker game started, identified and sized up, and each knew the other wasn't there for the cheap beer or the conversation.

Someone finally remembered to introduce them while the cards were being dealt. They half-rose to shake hands over a rickety table loaded with beer cans and crumpled bills, surrounded by guys who were mostly just loaded, and in the three seconds before they sat down again it was settled. The first in a long line of subjects that didn't need to be actually discussed.

Two hours later they'd taken the frat boys for everything but nineteen dollars without making a single enemy.

Thirty minutes after that they were sitting in a diner, Rusty eating pancakes and listening while Danny drank coffee and talked about an electronics store that wasn't quite keeping pace with the latest innovations in security.

.

It wasn't nosing around, not truly. Between Livingston and the twins and himself they'd jammed most of Reuben’s house full of their kit that didn't go to the warehouse. Basher couldn't always remember where he'd thrown everything, could he? So, wandering through one of the guest rooms on the hunt for a coil of wire, and didn't something under the bed catch his eye? He just sort of hooked it into view like, with his foot.

The nicest pair of blue steel handcuffs. He blinked, laughed, and kicked them back into place. Mentally saluting Rusty for having better taste in shagging accessories than he did in clothes. Those orange silk boxers hanging off the bed were enough to cause headaches.

They were reviewing the Bellagio schematics for the thousandth time when Basher suddenly noticed that Danny wasn't twisting his ring after all. He was rubbing absently at a couple of spots on his wrist. Particular spots that Basher instantly connected to his own time spent helping the police with their enquiries.

He started coughing and had to excuse himself for a drink of water.

Later, while they were bolting the vault shelves together, Rusty demanded to know why the hell Basher kept grinning at him like that.

.

They had sex for the first time immediately after their first real fight. Normally Rusty might have considered that a not-so-good sign -- an unhealthy relationship correlation, maybe -- but this was okay. They'd been circling around it for a while. Rusty just adjusted the timeline by almost getting himself killed in a simple robbery.

The fight included Danny's promise to kill Rusty if he ever did something that stupid again. The sex included Rusty's promise to kill Danny if he stopped doing that thing with his tongue anytime soon.

"No, the other thing--no, fuck, the other...ah Danny ah jesus god right there--"

After that it was mostly a lot of moaning.

.

Linus thought, _Oh._

He was backing out of the doorway when Rusty said amiably, "Come in, kid. Don't wake him up."

Linus's feet reacted before his brain did, carrying him forward, where he came to an awkward halt beside Reuben's couch. "Um. Hey."

"How was tonight?" Rusty still hadn't opened his eyes. He was sunk back into the cushions looking boneless and sleepy, his feet propped on the coffee table, one hand moving idly through Danny’s hair.

"Good. Um, good, it went fine." Linus kept his voice carefully low. And reminded himself that staring was...well, it was rude. Especially when you were staring at someone who was apparently sound asleep with his head in someone else's lap.

"You keeping up with Benedict all right?"

Linus cleared his throat a little. "Uh-huh. No problems."

"Excellent." A smile played around the corners of Rusty’s mouth. Linus was pretty sure that Rusty was actually laughing at him, but it was hard to be certain with his eyes closed. "You can brief us in the morning. Long day tomorrow. Get some sleep."

"Right. Sure." He obediently turned to go. "G'night."

"Kid?"

"Hmm?"

"Turn that light off, yeah? He’ll wake up if I move."

Linus nodded mutely, hitting the switch on his way out, and almost succeeded in not looking back at them over his shoulder.

.

Tess wasn't the first to figure them out. Most of Danny's girlfriends had realized the situation in fairly short order. Once, working their way through a dime of extraordinarily mellow Colombian red, Rusty declared that Danny's aversion to stupid women was his best quality. Danny laughed until tears squirted out of his eyes, and then he pushed Rusty over on his back and did something that quickly made Rusty admit (to the ceiling, between gasps) that Danny might possibly have a few qualities that rated higher.

Some of the girls had freaked out, broken up with Danny right away. The majority -- much to Rusty’s early amusement -- barely missed a beat before making a play for him, too. They never lasted long after that. Danny didn't get angry, but he didn't take them seriously any more either.

Tess was the only one who stayed and didn't try to maneuver the three of them into bed together.

Danny showed up at Rusty's door an hour after he and Tess returned from their honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas. He was wearing a bemused expression and a striped purple guayabera that couldn't have looked more wrong on him. "Tess said to tell you she loved the spa you booked for her," he said, trying not to smile and failing miserably. "And she sent you this shirt."

Rusty stood there with his mouth hanging open for a good ten seconds before he recovered enough to drag his new shirt inside.


End file.
